Gastronomy
The Cretan table
High Cretan cooking from pure island produce — olive oil, herbs and honey from farms we know by name.
The kitchen
It begins in the island's soil
Our kitchen starts where Crete does — in the soil. Olive oil, herbs, honey, cheese and vegetables come from small island farms, most within an hour of the hotel, many run by people we have known for years.
What arrives at the table is simply what the season is giving. We cook it plainly, and let the produce do the speaking.
Breakfast
A slow start, entirely of this place
Breakfast is the meal we care about most. It is served without hurry, from eight until eleven — fresh pastries and bread, Cretan yoghurt and thyme honey, eggs cooked to order, fruit at its best, and good coffee for as long as you want it.
It is included with every room, and it is reason enough, some mornings, not to go anywhere at all.
We came down for ten minutes, and stayed for two hours.
Dinner
Short menus, island cooking
In the evening the kitchen offers a short, changing menu of Cretan home cooking — a few plates, done well, alongside wines from small Heraklion vineyards.
It is unhurried and informal — the same considered care as breakfast, carried into the night. The bar stays open a while longer, for a last glass under the warm air.
Our producers
The hands behind the table
A few of the island people whose work reaches your plate each day.
Olive oil
Cold-pressed, from a family grove in the hills above Archanes.
Thyme honey
Gathered in the foothills of Psiloritis, by a beekeeper we have bought from for years.
Wild greens & herbs
Mountain greens, oregano and sage — picked in season, dried for the winter.
Cheese
Aged graviera and soft myzithra, from a small dairy out on the Lasithi road.
Local wine
A short, changing list from family vineyards across the Heraklion hills.
Fruit & vegetables
Whatever the morning market is proudest of — chosen that same day.
Reservations
A table, and a room above it
Stay with us and breakfast is included — the easiest, slowest start to a day in Heraklion.